1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to on demand, real time billing equipment for radio telephones.
2. Background Discussion
At present there is a problem with billing radio telephone calls. Bills are not provided in real time and on demand. Detailed monthly bills are done on a batch processing basis where the customer or user only gets a bill on a fixed date periodically. Expensive microprocessors are sometimes used to modify a radio telephone to enable it to provide a customer on demand with immediate access to billing information.
This problem is particularly acute in renting radio telephones because of insufficient information on the bill. Radio telephones are frequently available to customers of rented automobiles, taxies, and in other leasing situations. Currently, when the radio telephone is returned, the customer is required to pay a bill which is not itemized, but simply consisted of a gross dollar amount. The customer does not know identification of each individual phone number called, the date of each individual phone number called, duration of each individual phone number called, and the cost of each individual phone call. Frequently, the customer objects to the bill as being inaccurate and refuses to pay. Many potential customers refuse to rent a radio telephone because of the insufficient information on the bill.